The Crawley Family.
The Crawley family is the main family featured on the joint UK-US produced period soap opera, ''Downton Abbey. '' The Family Crawley The Crawleys are a long established family, having lived at Downton Abbey, which is seen as the family's ancestral home for many, many generations. The family is led by Robert Crawley the seventh Earl of Grantham. He is married to American-born heiress Cora Crawley, whom he had originally married in order for her fortune to help save Downton. This series of events did not make his widowed mother, Violet Crawley, the dowager countess of Grantham, happy in the least. Robert also has an older sister named Lady Rosamund Painswick, a widow who lived on Belgrave Square in London. However, after a year of a convenient marriage, they fell in love with one another. From this marriage, they had three daughters: Lady Mary Crawley, the eldest (and most ambitious); Lady Edith, the middle daughter who had to fight hard for happiness, and always considered in the family to be the spinster and the failure; and Lady Sybil, the youngest, most rebellious, but yet the sweetest youngest daughter. Lady Mary was married at first to Matthew Crawley her father's third cousin, once removed, because of an entail which tied the Downton Estate (which included her mother's fortune) to only male heirs; and with him, had a son named George. At series end, she and George were co-owners of the estate (George being the next Earl of Grantham; and Mary being willed her late husband's half of the estate); and she was married to one Henry Talbot, a former auto racer who gave up racing after a friend of his was killed in a car accident. Lady Edith, who seemed to have the worst time of things with her happiness, was always in conflict with Mary (due to their ages) almost from the very start in the nursery. Considered by the family to be only useful for helping out and not due any happiness, had her share of unhappiness (some would say more than her share). After being jilted at the altar by one suitor, and losing another one to death by murder at the hands of the Nazis, she becomes an heiress (by her latter suitor, Michael Gregson, who was also the father of her illegitimate child, Marigold) who owns her own magazine publishing company and owns a flat in London. She would later marry Herbert "Bertie" Pelham, the newly minted Marquess of Hexham, and she and Marigold would move to his home. Lady Sybil was the rebel, socially liberal and kindest of the three. She was married to former chauffeur, Tom Branson and with him, had a daughter named Sybbie named after her. Sybil would die due to Pre-Eclampsia. Other members of the family included Isobel, Matthew's mother who would become close friends and cronies with Violet, although they would sometimes argue; and Lady Rose MacClare, Violet's great niece (her mother was Robert's cousin), who would live with them for a time to protect her from the fallout of her parents divorcing. Other family members include Cora's mother, Martha Levinson, a proudly American woman who got great pleasure out of needling Violet, and her playboy brother, Harold Levinson. Sybbie, the eldest of the three grandchildren (and the only one born at the Abbey itself; her cousins were born in the Cottage hospital in Downton and Geneva, Switzerland, respectively) was a bit of an independent thinker, like her parents; and also possessed the kindness and sweetness that her mother had as a hallmark. Cora was closest to Sybbie (in fact it was she who first called her Sybbie) because she was the only link she had to her beloved late daughter (this was also shared by Sybil's widow, Tom; and Lady Mary, who adored her sister). George (whom was called Georgie, by his mother) was the new Heir Presumptive after the death of his father in a car accident. He and his mother were the new owners of the estate, while shy violet Marigold had her share of drama when she was brought up at the home of a tenant farmer. Eventually she would be reunited with her mother. For a wealthy and titled family, The Crawleys had perhaps a kinder nature than a lot of families of similar set-up and nature. Category:Downton Abbey characters